An intelligence report by Ekurhuleni metro police boss Robert McBride dismisses claims that a lack of service delivery was behind the xenophobic attacks that engulfed South Africa in May.
McBride’s report finds no single reason for the attacks, but rather a combination of general lawlessness, protection rackets, government initiatives that encouraged community members to ”take charge” of crime in their neighbourhoods, and the fact that some local politicians exploited the situation.
The report also tries to dispel accusations that the IFP instigated the violence, but suggests a link to a campaign to destabilise the municipal government of Ekurhuleni mayor Duma Nkosi.
McBride says the massive South Africa Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) strike held in Ekurhuleni the week after the violence subsided was related to the attacks. In the process he hits out at Nkosi’s political opponents, who criticised Nkosi’s protection of McBride.
Nkosi has since resigned after criticism from the provincial ANC of his handling of the McBride issue.
McBride is currently on leave pending his drunk-driving trial and this week refused to comment on how the report came about.
The report, which is in the possession of the Mail & Guardian, was compiled by McBride from information gathered by members of the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department (EMPD) and forms part of the National Intelligence Agency’s investigation into the attacks on foreigners. Ekurhuleni was hit hardest by the violence, with over 15 000 foreigners displaced.
The M&G has established that McBride and his colleagues compiled the report when he was recalled by Ekurhuleni municipal manager Patrick Flusk to assist in combating the xenophobic attacks.
McBride came under fire when he intervened in the Ramaphosa settlement where South African Police Service members were said to be negotiating with armed locals. After a bottle was thrown at McBride and his officers, the EMPD fired rubber bullets at the armed men.
McBride said publicly that the violence subsided after he intervened.
Nkosi put him back on leave the next day after pressure from the Gauteng provincial government.
According to the report, 21 of the 63 people who died in Gauteng during the attacks were South African citizens. ”It therefore becomes quite difficult to attribute the cause of the violence to xenophobia where a significant number of the victims were South African.”
McBride’s investigation found that the violence at the main hotspots in Ekurhuleni was caused by a variety of factors. ”Most of these incidents were as a result of private arguments and conflict. [I]t cannot be denied that these private arguments took on a xenophobic character, but then descended into general lawlessness, looting and criminality.”
In anticipation of possible xenophobic attacks, some ”criminally minded members of the community” approached foreigners and offered to protect them at a price. ”Foreigners who did not pay this protection had their houses attacked, belongings looted and their lives disrupted,” McBride wrote.
McBride rejects the notion that the attacks were a result of poor service delivery in Ekurhuleni.
”Of all the hotspots in Ekurhuleni, Ramaphosa [settlement] was one of the most brutal areas in terms of the nature of the attacks. However, Ramaphosa is one of the informal settlements that have seen the most development and infrastructure improvement over the past 10 years.
”Despite this, the foreigners who were attacked there were living in shacks and not RDP houses. This raises doubts about the correctness of the assumption that service delivery issues are at the centre of what sparked the violence.”
McBride also refers to Mandela Park in Katlehong, which has electricity, water, roads, storm-water drains, a school and a clinic, ”all which have been established over the past 10 years, thus reiterating the fact that there is an element of doubt regarding the assumptions on the nature of the attacks being related to discontent with the service delivery in the area”.
An ”element of criminality” was responsible for a number of attacks. ”Criminal elements took advantage of the situation by robbing and looting the businesses owned by non-South African residents of the various communities.” This included gangs taking ÂÂadvantage of the situation to ”further their own criminal intent”.
On the involvement of political parties, McBride notes that the IFP distanced itself from the incidents and that party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi ”instructed his indunas from KwaZulu-Natal to come to Gauteng and speak to local indunas. A request was made that IFP leaders are to distance themselves from any violent acts.”
McBride further notes that Mandela Park in Katlehong and Madelakufa and Phomolong in Tembisa are United Democratic Movement strongholds. ”However, no UDM leaders addressed the community to condemn these attacks.”
According to the report, an EMPD member was warned that the ”Xhosa-speaking people of Sethokga hostel have reinforced the Xhosa-speaking people of Madelakufa to remove foreigners in the area”. Sethokga, the report notes, is also a stronghold of the UDM.
McBride then spells out how, in his view, the Samwu strike in Ekurhuleni was related to the attacks.
”Due to the prevailing violent situation, as well as the internal division within the ANC and alliance, certain individuals have taken advantage of the situation to spur on instability within the region. Meetings have taken place between [these people] and some members of Samwu and the [Umkhonto weSizwe] Military Veterans Association (MKMVA).”
These meetings took place during the period of the xenophobic attacks.
He claims to have been briefed by members of the MKMVA during the xenophobic attacks about a ”well-coordinated plan that is meant to destabilise the region and thus Ekurhuleni”.
”Information shared with me was that there [were] plans of using any means possible to oust the executive in the region and — if [they] succeeded, the next move would be to oust councillor Duma Nkosi as the executive mayor.”
According to the report McBride was told that the people behind the plan were ”well-known people — and there are those who are serving in the structures of the ANC and the alliance”.
Also of major concern to McBride and his team was the ”large number of residents’ associations, community policing forums and neighbourhood watch members involved in the violence”. Many of these people, the report claims, have been part of the Gauteng department of community safety’s ”Take Charge” campaign that encouraged communities to become actively involved in the fight against crime.
”It is therefore clear that such well-intentioned campaigns can go horribly wrong if they are not properly supervised and monitored.”
McBride recommends a review of the country’s migration policies, that the ANC’s resolution to deal with the problem of xenophobia be implemented, that ANC party structures be revitalised at local level, that the ANC beef up its internal disciplinary processes and that the country’s law-enforcement agencies define operating procedures to deal with ”murderous mob violence in a way that is distinctly different from normal crowd management”.
The seeds of two deaths
The McBride report investigates the origins of specific instances of violence against foreigners in Ekurhuleni. This extract deals with two Mozambican men who were killed in Tembisa on May 18:
”On May 17 in the evening the violence spread to Kanana area. On May 18 it spread to Madelakufa Section in Tembisa.
”At Madelakufa it is alleged that two boys were fighting one another and one died. The two families (the family of the deceased and of the alleged suspect) then had a meeting to address the issue of the burial of the dead boy.
”The family of the alleged killer called the street/sectional committee to witness the agreement. The committee members were divided, upon which a member asked the nationality of the boys.
”It was found that the deceased was a South African citizen (Xhosa-speaking) and the suspect was a Mozambican.
”The same committee member then asked whether the Mozambicans did not see what happened at Alexandra, and assured them that the same will happen in Tembisa. The committee member further threatened that the meeting was a fruitless exercise.
”On May 18 two Mozambican citizens were killed in the area. The first victim was stabbed 49 times with a sharp object. Information gathered was that when he was stabbed he was screaming and everyone heard him screaming (it was in the afternoon and everybody witnessed his stabbing).
”It is alleged that after the first victim was stabbed to death, the second victim was returning from work. As he entered his shack he was dragged out, in front of his wife and their child of three years old. He was then slaughtered while both his wife and child were watching.
”The wife of the deceased knows the suspect and she has not yet made a statement. An agreement was reached that she will only make a statement when an operation is conducted to arrest the suspects — [The agreement] was made for her safety.
”At the moment the wife and the child still stay in the same shack where the murder occurred. After the death of [the man] they underwent no counselling or debriefing.
”The wife is unemployed and the deceased was the source of income. After his death the bank froze the bank account of [the man] as he was married customarily — and the death certificate states that the deceased was not married.
”The wife confirmed that she does not have a marriage certificate.
”Two suspects were identified by the wife as being neighbours in Madelakufa.”